In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

536 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY that Kant gives us both, a mechanistic and a teleological interpretation of history, the one being a complement of the other (p. 43). In discussing the second theme--(2) above the author keys his analysis to Kant's answer to the question, What is Enlightenment?, but also takes into consideration relevant parts of "Mutmasslicher Anfang der Menschengeschichte," "Ideen zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in Weltbfirgerlicher Absicht," "Der Streit der Fakult~iten," "Zum Ewigen Frieden," and of the third Critique. He shows Kant's theme to be that man is the ultimate purpose of creation, and that a purely mechanistic interpretation of nature leads to contradictions . What, then, must an adequate foundation of the history of philosophy be?--(3) above. Here again "the concept of Au/kliirung is particularly useful" (p. 88). The discussion centers on Kant's "Lose Bl~itter," "welches sind die wirklichen Fortschritte" in metaphysics since the days of Leibniz and Wolff, and on well chosen parts of the Critique o/Pure Reason. The interpretation, in effect, is that the ideal history of the self-manifestation of reason in empirical history at some particular moment in time is the period of the Enlightenment . The Kantian problem of the history of philosophy--(4) above---entails two aspects: The first is rational and a priori; the second, empirical and a posteriori. The first consists of the explication of the ideal development of reason or the ideal history of philosophy; the second consists of the exposition of the empirical manifestation of that history and actually is the exposition of the factual history of philosophy. The first is "absolutely autonomous," the second is only relatively so. The first consists of the determination a priori of the dements of the cognitive process; the second consists of the exposition of the thinking manifest in empirical history (p. 171). The discussion of these alternatives leads the author to the conclusion that, for Kant, the ultimate and rational foundamtion, the "transcendental foundation," is reason determining its own history--i.e., the historical determination of the Enlightenment of reason (p. 174). So seen, transcendental philosophy is itself an dement in the history of reason and the foundation of the reason which proceeds historically. But when we take this to be so, then we have, on the one hand, "a philosophy of Enlightenment" and, on the other, "a history of the Enlightenment as philosophy." Here, then, we are face to face with "the possibility of a radical alternative" (p. 175). And on this note the book ends without providing a solution of the problem. An extensive bibliography (pp. 179-190), arranged under five headings (of which one deals exclusively with Kant's philosophy of history), and a three page Index of Names complete this stimulating work. W. H. WERKMEISTER Florida State University Nietzsche's Thought o/Eternal Return. By Joan Stambaugh. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972. Pp. xvi + 134. $7.50) Professor Stambaugh's expressed intention is to "probe into the meaning of Nietzsche's thought of eternal return" (xi), and "having pondered the meaning of Nietzsche's statements .., to inquire into the meaning of eternal return independent of those statements" (xii). If one thinks that a "probe of Nietzsche's meaning" should involve a dear, accurate presentation of his thought and a critical evaluation of it, then this book has little to recommend it. It lacks both. Professor Stambaugh's true interest is in her second task. It is evident throughout the book that she does not wish seriously to examine what Nietzsche said, but rather to try to express a profound and difficult idea which she believes he was struggling to communicate. BOOK REVIEWS 537 Her "probe" has an exasperating trait of sometimes going its way in spite of Nietzsche's statements rather than because of them. Near the end of her book she says that "a simplistic interpretation of Nietzsche's thought of eternal return might read: everything, including man, is born, lives its life, dies, and in some infathomable way is reborn. Time moves in continuous cycles, bringing everything back again in repetition (pp. 104-105) However, early in the book she says that Nietzsche's thought is unique...

pdf

Share